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What “Sex Work Is Work” means for women

I don’t like the slogan “sex work is work”. Not because I don’t agree with it; believe it or not, I do. But because people keep saying it like it’s a good thing. I’m going to talk here about why it’s not, and I’m going to start by talking about work.

Under capitalism (moar liek crapitalism, lol! RTs not faves plz), production and reproduction were separated by the wage. ‘Productive labour’, which produced surplus value for capitalist profiteers, became waged work. This is the work that was generally dominated by men. Women, on the other hand, have historically been lumbered with ‘reproductive labour’. Since this work ostensibly produced no surplus value for capitalists, women did not typically earn a wage. Nevertheless, cleaning where you live, taking care of kids, preparing food and sponge-bathing your senile uncle Joe is shit that just has to be done. Men could do it too…